A Hidden Cost For Small Businesses
We live in a beautiful town right on the beach in sub-tropical Queensland. Over the years this has become a mecca for tourists and now the developers are moving in and small businesses are beginning to feel the effects.
Obviously small businesses that cater for the tourist industry are going to benefit but there are a lot of small business people here in town who are beginning to suffer.
Those small business people are the ones who cater for the local residents. Computer shops, hair dressers and other small businesses that tourists aren’t interested in are the ones that are being effected here. While the number of customers coming through their doors is remaining constant their rents are skyrocketing.
For some it’s even worse as developers move in and buy up the complex that they have traded from for years. Those complexes are being developed into tourist accommodation and so the small businesses who did trade from those places are having trouble finding new premises to trade from and if they do find new premises the rents have often doubled and even tripled.
